Ohio school leader to pay $11,750 in ethics probe

COLUMBUS — A Columbus school board member has agreed to repay the district $11,750 and accept a reprimand after a state investigation found she violated ethics rules.
The agreement with the Ohio Ethics Commission means Hanifah Kambon will not be referred for criminal prosecution.
Kambon, who is running for re-election to the school board, said she’s happy the matter has been concluded. She told The Columbus Dispatch she would meet the two-month repayment deadline.
The Ohio Ethics Commission ruled Friday that Kambon had a “prohibited interest” in profits or
benefits of four contracts between her husband’s
company and two Columbus school buildings in
contracts from 2010 and 2011.
The commission said the agreement was appropriate because Kambon didn’t
use her public position to gain work for the company and because her husband had been doing business with Columbus schools for more than a decade before she became a board member.
Paul M. Nick, the commission’s executive director, said the investigation found she did not knowingly violate the law and had no prior history of ethical misconduct.
“What was wrong here was she should not have been anywhere involved with her husband’s company, but after a review of her financial records, it became clear that she was,” Nick said.
Voters will choose among six school board candidates, including three incumbents, for three open seats.
Kambon’s husband owns Visionary Leaders Institute. He sold the staff-training workshops and books during the years in question to Marion-Franklin High School and Oakmont Elementary.
The contracts with his company were small and wouldn’t normally go through a bid process or a vote of the school board. That means Kambon did not vote on the purchases, but also that there was no oversight of a company to which she had ties that was doing business with the district, the paper said.